Tips To Sound A Little "Out", And Personalize Your Playing

Hello guitar pals! I am writing this column to help you sound a little outside using an easy way based on extended patterns.

In the first example, if you have a situation like, let's say,an A minor vamp you can mix (A Minor Blues + A major Blues) pentatonics. That results in a scale like this: A, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F#, G, A. This is a terrific sounding 9 note scale. Follow me on these next two examples:

It is called a turnaround, this harmonic movement starting on bar 9, and you can use the A melodic minor scale over the entire turnaround. A melodic minor scale brings us the next few chords Aminor7+, B minor7(13), Caug5, D7, E7, F#minor75b, G#alt.
If you notice, the fourth and fifth chords of the scale are exactly the same chords of the blues turnaround except in Bar 11, the A7, where A melodic minor will sound Dorian7+ against the 7 chord, sounds weird but it works!